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Just four years after its first “harvest” of genetically modified (GM) Atlantic salmon in Canada, the U.S. biotechnology company AquaBounty is selling its on-land GM fish factory at Rollo Bay, Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada. Local community groups have confirmed that AquaBounty’s factory is now closed.
“We never wanted genetically modified salmon and we’re relieved the company has shut down production,” said Sharon Labchuk of Earth Action PEI.
AquaBounty is not currently producing any GM salmon.
AquaBounty owes $2.2 million to the Government of Prince Edward Island from a loan provided to assist the construction of the building that is now for sale. In total, over $8 million was invested by the federal and provincial governments through multiple grants and loans.
“Millions of our public money was wasted to support this worthless, dangerous genetically modified fish,” said Leo Broderick of The Council of Canadians-PEI Chapter which is also a member of the coalition GMO-Free PEI that fought to stop the GM salmon in PEI.
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In February 2023, AquaBounty announced that it would no longer produce GM salmon at Rollo Bay, and in September 2024 the company announced that the building is for sale.
However, as recently as December 2023, the federal government provided AquaBounty with up to $612,000 to support “business productivity and scale-up” at Rollo Bay, and on Feb. 29, provided AquaBounty with a loan of $158,246, at a 3% interest rate.
Mark Butler, senior adviser with Nature Canada, said:
“The federal and provincial governments should never have funded this technology that puts wild salmon at risk and jeopardises the funding and efforts these same governments are putting into restoring and protecting wild Atlantic salmon.
“This was a poor use of taxpayers’ money and governments should recoup our money.”
The Canadian facility was one of two sites run by AquaBounty. Both are now closed.
The second, in Indiana, was sold earlier this year to the company Superior Fresh, which only uses non-GM fish and non-GM fish food.
AquaBounty says it will use funds from the building sales to finance the construction of a bigger GM salmon factory in Ohio. However, construction in Ohio has been on hold since June 2023.
“This was always going to be a biotech boondoggle. Genetically modifying fish is unnecessary and unwanted,” said Lucy Sharratt, coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, which has been tracking AquaBounty for over 10 years.
The GM salmon was the first-ever GM food animal sold in the world. There is no mandatory labeling of GM foods in Canada for consumers.
Originally published by GMWatch.
